TWO felines have been waiting more than a year to find their forever homes in Warrington – showing the plight of ‘unlucky’ black cats.

This comes after the RSPCA released new figures showing more black or black and white cats end up in rescue centres and wait longer to find homes.

Salem and Sabrina are a pair of two-year-old black cats who came into the care of the RSPCA Warrington branch in July last year from a multi-cat household.

They are still looking for their home 15 months later.

As they missed out on vital socialisation with people as they were living with so many cats, they both lacked a bit of confidence when they first arrived at the Warrington branch.

Salem, who has a rather fetching ‘snaggle tooth’, was very frightened of his new surroundings at first but will now happily come out for strokes, although he can get ‘spooked’ sometimes.

And Sabrina is an independent lady who will quite happily spend time on her own - and her favourite pastime is sleeping.

They will both need an owner who is willing to take things slowly to continue to make progress and build up their confidence.

They would benefit from a quiet home and despite being pals on TV and in the comics, Salem and Sabrina would like to be rehomed separately and would prefer to be the only pet in the home.

The animal charity revealed the figures for National Black Cat Day which is today, October 27.

The day comes just days before Halloween when some people may see black cats as ‘spooky’ or superstitious.

From 2019 to 2021, more than 2,000 black cats came into the charity’s 14 national animal centres (this does not include the RSPCA’s large network of branches so actual figures will be higher).

The charity rehomed 2,260 black cats during the same period and on average it took 30 days for a black cat to find their forever home compared to 16 days for a grey tabby cat.

Black and white cats are the felines who are more likely to come into the charity’s care (2,770) and they took an average of 28 days to find their forever homes compared to a calico cat which took just 17 days.

The higher numbers of black or black and white cats ending up in rescue centres and their longer stay could be in part due to myths around black cats, especially at this time of year.

In UK folklore, black cats actually traditionally symbolise good luck but around Halloween many associate black cats with superstitions or witches.

Others say that black cats aren’t ‘Instagrammable’ and don’t look good in pictures whilst some people prefer ‘different’ coat colours such as blue or grey cats.

Sam Watson, RSPCA cat welfare expert, said: “It is a sad fact that black cats really don’t have much luck because we see more of them coming through our doors than any other colour of cat, other than black and white cats, possibly because they are more common.

“A few studies show that some people believe black cats are less affectionate, but they really are no different to any other cat."

For more information on Salem and Sabrina, contact RSPCA Warrington, Halton and St Helens Animal Centre on contact@rspca-whs.org.uk.